Busy B

How long has it been since I had the luxury of time to open up the blogger page? Loooong. So looong i nearly forgot the password to my site! and last night, i had a dream that people left comments on my blog that they're longer visiting my site cos it doesn't have anymore Timor updates. Yikes! I wrung my hands in despair in my dream and vowed to wake up to do something concrete. So here i am - 9am on a saturday morning - in the office typing away, listening to Stephanie Sun croon away.
The truth is, i've been wanting to say a lot - my mind has been racing with thoughts except i never had the time these days to put them all down - sooo busy sometimes i do0n't even log onto the internet the entire day and then it's 6pm time to go home before it gets dark. SO i leave home with thoughts boiling over in my little brain and with no outlet - no wonder i fell horribly sick last 3 days - must have been the excessive vitriol i haven't been able to expunge via the blog.

OKay - first updates on Timor. Since the farcical escape of Alfredo from jail, this country's journalism has slipped many bars downwards. So bad the press is these days, i fear to see what the next headline might be every day the papers are sent in to the office. I hope Jeremy Wagstaff reads this blog cos months ago he asked what the Timorese reporters felt about the whole civil unrest. The fact is that many of them have become LAZY or unethical. choose whichever one suits you. Many of their reports have been lop-sided - going as far as to quote one person, or one party entirely who sling accusations at another and never so much as get a comment from the acccused. It's terrible!

FOR EXAMPLE - Mass for Alfredo. I gawped the day the AUstralian press went on about how the FNJP was organising a mass for Alfredo. I quickly scanned the papers and discovered that there was indeed an ad about a mass for Alfredo in Gleno, Ermera district. It was to 'give courage and power to Alfredo to speak the truth.' I quickly asked a colleague and he checked with the parish priest in Ermera who said, 'it is just propaganda. the mass is for those who died in the unrest.' so obviously the church had been hijacked for political purpose here. I feared that the Timorese who largely see the church as authoritative would then think that the church was behind Alfredo and thus he is RIGHT. How scary. So why was it that we could easily check with the priest in question but the newspapers couldn't? 2 days later, there was a new ad, this time it was "for those who died in the unrest of Arpril 28 and May 25th and to give courage to those who seek the truth.' AHh..... much better. But still, i wonder how much damage has been done?

Another disturbing thought these days ------------- that many Timorese actually think that Alfredo is not a criminal! their sense of justice is quite different from ours (meaning the west? i dunno!) but perhaps because of their guerilla resistance past, the sense of right and wrong is not aligned with conventional legality. Ok, for example, Alfredo went AWOL with his men up to Maubisse. Instead of being chastised, he was endorsed by Xanana for doing the right thing. IN at least my country, a military commander who takes men away with weapons would be in real hot soup. But ok, considering the great chaos then, let's cut him some slack. And then, on May 24th in Fatuahi, Alfredo fires upon a bunch of soldiers who had come into Dili to collect their pay. He was caught on film counting down and firing on them and possibly killing one. AGain, this doesn't seem to have taken any brownie points from him. And then when he came back to Dili and surrendered weapons, the international forces found 9 more unsurrendered weapons and threw him into Jail. Wait, and then he walks out of jail in an elaborately planned scheme and tells the world that he is not a criminal. Guess what, many highly educated Timorese agree with him! They say, he left because after 30 days in jail no action had been taken and that he had been threatened in jail.

i agree that the justice system here sucks - which is why gangsterism has flowered to take justice in their own hands - and why men like Alfredo are revered. So far, even though Alfredo and many others have critised the incumbent but have not submitted any real concrete action plan. ironically, when Mari Alkatiri was in power, Jose Ramos-Horta said that he himself was more suitable. Now, Alfredo says Ramos-horta is no different from Mari and that he Alfredo can do a better job. Oh dear. Sounds like a broken record.

i ask my Timorese friends, so what is it that they want as a nation? More violence? They must stand up to DENY violence if they want this nation to thrive. UNfortunately, this small half island has been taken hostage by all different interests and of course its predators have jumped in to take advantage of the rocky situation.

TIMOR TIMOR! Were the lessons of 1975 not hard enough?

Phew, all that vitriol spent. more to come soon. now gotta get back to work. TA